


Possibilities

by breakdancingsigma (hetawholockvengerstuck)



Category: Red vs. Blue
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Universe Alterations, What-If
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2014-10-20
Updated: 2014-10-20
Packaged: 2018-02-21 20:10:47
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,660
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2480876
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/hetawholockvengerstuck/pseuds/breakdancingsigma
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>In another universe, Allison survives. Project Freelancer has co-directors, a soldier and a scientist, and the goal is completely different. </p><p>In another universe, Carolina gets Omega. In another, she gets Epsilon. </p><p>In another universe, the freelancers are completely different people--wacky, incompetent, but still able to get the job done. </p><p>In another universe, the Dakota Experiment never takes place. In another, the roles are reversed.</p><p>There are endless possibilities and endless outcomes. A shuffling of AI, one death less or more, a missed encounter...when the stakes are high, everything counts.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Possibilities

In another universe, Carolina is never born.

They wanted a child. They really did. Leonard knew that Allison would be granted maternity leave, and she would be safe at home for months. Allison knew this, too, but she had a duty to perform, a world to protect. 

"When this is all over, we'll have kids," she says.

The war continues. Allison dies. Leonard contemplates suicide, but chooses instead to pursue a path of revenge through Project Freelancer.

* * *

There is no Agent Carolina. The top of the leaderboard is Wyoming. He's not a great leader, but North and Florida pick up the slack.

There is no Agent New York. Instead, the team's infiltration specialist is Florida. He triggers fewer alarms.

When Agent Texas joins Project Freelancer, Wyoming is livid. Having his ass handed to him in front of his team, going down first almost every time despite teaming up with Maine and North...it's no surprise when Tex takes first place. Some of the team laugh at Wyoming behind his back. North lost an eye in the fight. South is now pissed at both the Director and Wyoming, but she moves back up. She's in fourth place now, right after Florida.

Florida tells him not to worry, he'll be back in first in no time. Wyoming isn't so sure. 

* * *

Despite his injury, North leads Team A to secure the Sarcophagus. Wyoming is left with CT and South to cause a distraction and secure the briefcase. They don't get that far.

He's the only one bleeding this badly. CT applies biofoam while South jumps out of cover and fires round after round at anything that moves, and Wyoming is nearly passed out. He's the goddamn leader. He's supposed to be the strongest. He should be the one radioing for help, calling for a Pelican to pick up an injured teammate while he picks off hostiles. He should have secured the objective. 

He's loaded onto the Pelican and secured into his seat, head lolling. He's in so much pain, but he can't let it show. He's supposed to be number one.

Tex secures the briefcase. Wyoming drops to number four. He hates himself, he hates Texas, but he doesn't hate Florida, who took the number two spot, or North, who took number three. Team A did their job, and then some.

In this universe, Maine does not lose his voice. Florida picks of the Insurrectionists with no problem. Maine drives. North takes a bullet to the shoulder, just barely missing his spinal cord. His arm is scratched up from near misses that he didn't see, because he hasn't quite got the hang of fighting with one eye.

South is pissed again; now she's number five. Wyoming can sympathize. Even in his well of self-pity he knows that South performed wonderfully.

* * *

When Delta is "born", the Counselor assigns him to Wyoming. It's an honor, he's told, to be chosen for implant. It means he's done well. It means the Director trusts him.

Wyoming accepts the honor. He can't help thinking that it's the Director's way of saying he's not good enough on his own. He's not a fool, though. He'll take what he's given.

His aim gets better with Delta's help. He can assess the risks of popping his head out and taking a shot, he can use the armor mods he's been given--not the time-warping one, because that's illogical, and Delta can't run that. No, the armor mods are all redistributed. He gets domed energy shields. South gets a speed mod. Florida gets a special healing unit, because he's allergic to certain drugs. He's given Sigma to run the mod. Wyoming and Florida have their surgeries one after another. It's somewhat comforting.

In this universe, the Meta is never born. Florida's cheerful, uplifting personality soothes Sigma. When the AI can't sleep, the two of them play word games.

North still gets Theta. South is not given an AI. The Director keeps Gamma for the sole purpose of torturing the Alpha.

* * *

CT still defects. In this universe, Tex kills both CT and the Insurrectionist leader on sight. 

* * *

In this universe, the next AI fragment is not Eta, and it is not Iota. It is not even Epsilon.

The AI is tiny, smaller than Theta. Maine thinks that, if it were a real person, he might be in danger of accidentally squishing it.

It is a she. She doesn't look like the other AI he's seen. She is not in armor. She is not a sexless body with a bald head. She is female. She has light hair, green eyes, and she shines a brilliant cyan.

Her official name is Lambda. She prefers to go by Carol. 

The first time the Director hears that, he leaves the room. After that, he avoids looking at Carol. He insists on calling her Lambda. 

The Counselor says Lambda is hope. She is certainly optimistic, but Maine can sense a tang of bitterness. The best way to describe it, he feels, is abandonment. Carol is the closest thing to human a single AI fragment can get.

Maine falls in love with her the minute he sees her, in the exact same way North fell for Theta: as if he became a father.

She's sassy. She's innocent, but the damage Maine deals with his fists doesn't phase her. If anything, she seems to get satisfaction out of successful missions. She's so eager to please the Director that she provides internal competition, pushing Maine to be the best he can be.

The implantation is such a success that the Director feels ready to step up his experiments a notch. Washington is given two AI, Eta and Iota. Within a few days, it is clear that Wash is unable to function normally, let alone excel. With no permanent harm done, Iota is extracted and stored. If something happens to Eta, Wash will receive Iota. 

Eta does not function without Iota. Wash goes in to have Eta extracted, and a surgical error nearly kills him. Experimentation is shut down. South is livid. Tex finds and reads the files CT left behind for her, pays special attention to the file labeled Beta...and then another file catches her eye. One that shouldn't be there, because CT died before this AI fragment was even a concept.

There's a password in the file. Tex uses it to access the official file on Lambda.

* * *

Maine is attacked by Tex. He succeeds in defending his AI, but Tex escapes with help from North. South seems completely and utterly lost without her twin, unable to direct her anger at anything. She stays by Wash's bedside, wanting to hate him for causing the shutdown, or keeping her from getting a fragment like Theta...but she can't. She can't even hate him for having two AI. She just feels empty.

Maine gets sent to Blood Gulch to watch over Alpha. The way the Director sees it, it's a two-birds-one-stone situation. He can keep two very important AI safe. Needless to say, Maine is allowed to keep Lambda.

Wyoming does not want to lose Delta, but he doesn't want to follow in Tex's footsteps. He wants to go after her. He wants to prove that he's better than her, once and for all. Maybe then the Director will realize that the freelancers need their AI. Wash was just a freak accident, a medical mistake, nothing to do with the AI.

He doesn't have to go after Tex. Tex comes to him.

North tries to get South to come with him. She doesn't want to, but North won't stay. She goes with him.

Tex has two objectives. She is able to complete one, but she cannot find Maine. There are no transfer orders recorded in any files, not even the encrypted ones. What is left of the Alpha in the mainframe is too exhausted to tell her where the freelancer was sent. She suspects this is only a ghost of the Alpha, the remnant of a neural connection that she caught just in time. He won't remember this, but he might remember her words.

Tex and the Dakotas escape. Wyoming and Florida are sent to track them down. The Dakotas are easy; they split off from Tex the minute they hit land. Theta never gets the chance to block Wyoming's bullet. South is downed by a throwing knife before she can even scream.

They find Tex in Blood Gulch, entirely by accident. They were running out of supplies, and they had no way to contact the Director. The nearest sim bases were in a tiny box canyon, according to Vic. (For some reason, he was calling himself Vic, Jr. Wyoming always knew that guy was kooky.)

Wyoming shot Tex the moment she was alone. She just got back up and ran into the base. When she came back with Maine, Wyoming fled.

Florida wanted to give up. Project Freelancer had fallen apart, the Director was in hiding from the UNSC, and there was no way they could beat Tex and Maine. Wyoming refused to back down. He had Vic transfer him to the Red Team. Florida infiltrated Blue Team.

In this universe, Wash never meets the Reds and Blues. Tex and Maine explain everything to Florida, and Florida explains it to Wyoming. 

Wyoming stays on Red Team. Sister joins Red Team. 

Tex is content to spent the rest of her existence in Blood Gulch. She has Carol and Church. 

In this universe, the Alpha is not destroyed. This version of Leonard Church gets to live with his wife and daughter, and a whole bunch of friends. He's happy.

The Director keeps trying. He tries to recreate Allison. He tries to recreate Carol. He fails at both endeavors. 

He keeps trying, until he can try no more. Then he has F.I.L.S.S. lock him in and turn off life support. He takes the path he contemplated all those years ago.


End file.
